X-rays of teeth increase the risk of developing brain cancer
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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X-rays are currently considered the most reliable, but also the most dangerous method of diagnosis. However, despite the fact that the effect of radiation on a patient in medicine has now become minimal, it is often not recommended to do an x-ray of the teeth.
American scientists came to the conclusion that people who often make dental x-ray images of their own jaws are more likely to get a meningioma - a benign tumor growing out of the arachnoid medulla.
The study involved a group of neurosurgeon scientists under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Claus (Elizabeth Claus) of the Yale Institute, who presented the results of the research done in the journal Cancer.
Studies have been conducted by Elizabeth Klaus and her colleagues since 2006: the total number of people tested was 1,443 with meningioma disease, the age of patients was between 20 and 79 years. Among other things, 1,350 healthy people participated in the studies, who had a need to visit the dentist's X-ray room, but who did not have a meningioma.
The highest risk of developing meningioma occurs in people who have undergone at least 1 time pan-x-ray of the entire oral cavity. In this group of meningioma met 3 times more often than in people who did not visit the X-ray room. The greatest risk of this disease occurs in children under 10 years of age. A significant factor researchers call and medical equipment used for X-ray photography of teeth. New X-ray machines do the least harm to a person.
On the advice of scientists, in order to minimize the risk of the disease with meningioma, it is necessary to minimize the visit to the radiology room. However, the usual procedure for an X-ray of the whole mouth is recommended with the following frequency: children under 10 years old - no more than once for 1-2 years, schoolchildren and adolescents - once for 1.5-3 years, and adults - not more often once every 2-3 years.
Meningioma is considered a benign tumor. It increases quite slowly and is not considered to be such a dangerous threat to the human body. Although in some cases it leads to disability and almost one-hundred percent loss of ability to work